Avid football fans and pre-game tailgaters have recognized the need for a device that would alleviate the principal problems associated with tailgating: not having enough space to transport all of one""s tailgating equipment and supplies, i.e. a grill, a cooler chest, food, team flag and flag pole; and once at the tailgating site, not having enough room to set up the grill and cooler chest. The portable grill and cooler apparatus of the present invention solves these vexing problems now existing in the tailgating art.
The portable grill and cooler apparatus of the present invention contains everything a person would need to put on a tailgating party. It is an all-in-one tailgating package, and in a preferred embodiment to date, consists of a raisable and lowerable platform that houses a removable charcoal or gas grill and a removable cooler chest, with a storage compartment between the two, a telescoping flagpole mounted to the platform to display team colors, and a fold down table attached on both ends of the platform to provide more cooking area. In the preferred embodiment to date, the platform is connected to a scissors lift system that is used to raise and lower the platform. The apparatus is carried and transported solely via a receiver type hitch assembly one part of which is an integral part of the scissors lift system and one part of which is conventionally mountable on a transport vehicle. The scissors lift system can be used to mount the apparatus to a transport vehicle without the need to physically lift the apparatus. On the bottom of the scissors lift system of the preferred embodiment to date are four caster wheels. Thus, when detached from the transport vehicle, the apparatus can be easily moved, utilizing the caster wheels, again without physical lifting. The castor wheels are not used in the transport of the apparatus by a transport vehicle. The ability to carry and move the apparatus without having to physically lift the apparatus at any time is thus unique.
Another preferred embodiment of the present invention to date has been a portable grill and cooler apparatus, comprising a platform housing a grill and a cooler chest; a lift device attached to the platform that raises the platform from a transport position to a use position and lowers the platform from the use position to the transport position, and that removably attaches the platform to a transport vehicle; and wheels attached to the lift device on which the platform and lift means are wheeled when the platform and lift means are detached from a transport vehicle but on which they are not wheeled when the platform is in the transport position and is attached to a transport vehicle.
Related objects and advantages of the present invention will be evident from the following descriptions.